Dunlap's presence inside will present a potential obstacle to Mike Vick, who will have to throw around the big man on the interior.

"He said (he'll) find the lanes," Dunlap said.

He'll match up against the Cardinals' Calais Campbell, a six-foot-eight defensive lineman.

"We'll be looking eye to eye. It'll be real big up the middle this week," Dunlap said.

On other spots on defense:

-- Safety Jaiquawn Jarrett was with the first team during the morning walk through in place of Nate Allen (concussion). Jarrett got his first action at safety Monday night after Allen got hurt and could get his first career start Sunday if Allen is not ready to play.

"It's just a lot of communication errors, I can say that," Rodgers-Cromartie said. "Certain formations come out and then you don't get the call out in time and then when the plays come it's too late to get it out, so you know we've just got to work on that and talk a little, that's all."

As far as facing his former team, Rodgers-Cromartie said: "They know what they had, I was there."

But he said he is still adjusting to playing in the slot.

"Anytime as a player you go into the game and you're always thinking, you tend to push slower. It's nothing athletic wise or scheme-wise, it's just a lot of thinking, that's it," he said, admitting to be "a little confused" in some calls.

Joselio Hanson, the team's nickel for several years now, remains the dime back. He said he believes he could contribute at nickel.

"There's a couple plays out there I feel like I could have made," Hanson said. "The nickel position, I feel like a couple of those plays I've seen a number of times."

Friends from home, he said, have told him he could be making plays, but he said he's not complaining.

"I'm not the boss here, I'm just a worker. They tell me to go in, I'll go in," he said.

Hanson avoided directly criticizing coaches or any teammates directly, but asked about the team's problems said, "I just know we can't have mental mistakes on third down."

-- Defensive end Brandon Graham said he played better than he expected Monday. Coaches helped limit his fatigue by rotating him: four plays on, four plays off.